Matt Kenseth, the unexpected winner of Sunday’s Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway, had to do a double take.
So did second and third-place finishers Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon.
Kenseth got a gift on the last lap of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race when Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch ran out of fuel halfway through the last lap at the 2.5-mile triangular track. Continue reading →
“This is awesome!”
…Kyle Busch screamed as he crossed the finish line at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and continued a run that has grown from extraordinary to downright other-worldly.
Holding off Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano during three late-race restarts, Busch beat Logano to the finish line by 0.332 seconds to win Sunday’s Crown Royal presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at The Brickyard.
The victory was Busch’s fourth in the last five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, all coming after an 11-event absence to start the season, the result of a broken right leg and left foot suffered in a crash during the Feb. 21 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway. Continue reading →
Kyle Busch, continued his streak of excellence in the sport of NASCAR by winning the Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon. With a last lap pass on Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney, the win gave Busch his second win at Indianapolis in three years.
This victory came after overcoming multiple problems throughout the day. First issue was a communication problem resulting in not pitting at the beginning of the race. Busch was noticeably upset over the radio, forcing his team to use a different strategy which actually ended up playing in his favor.
“The caution flew about Lap 23, and pit road wasn’t open till about Lap 26,” noted crew chief Chris Gayle. “That then put us on a one stop strategy to where we could make it to the end even with the misunderstanding communication wise.”
Busch went on to lead 53 laps the rest of the day, collecting his second win and fourth top-ten of 2015.
Busch also battled the heat all day, noting that he…
‘melted inside the car, the whole race.’
Busch also mentioned that the car had no openings for air, which obviously did not help the heat situation. When asked, Busch talked about having NASCAR make a change that would make the air openings fair for everybody.
One of the ideas Busch suggested was for NASCAR to mandate an eight inch opening on the right side window that every team could use.
Battling through the obstacles, Busch was still able to overcome the odds of a pit road misunderstanding and excessive heat all day by ensuing a last lap pass for the lead.
“I just got close enough to make him (Blaney) mess up and he got tight off (turn) two and then I was able to capitalize underneath him losing his momentum off of two and being able to get under him,” said Busch. “Can’t say enough about Chris Gayle and all these guys on this Monster Energy Camry. It was the class of the field, we should have won this thing going away, but I guess we had to make it exciting.”
That pass came at the expense of 21-year-old Ryan Blaney.
“It’s my fault, obviously. You saw it. I screwed up,” Blaney said. “This team doesn’t deserve that. I dropped the ball for them today and I take full responsibility. It’s my fault.”
Blaney was able to beat Busch on the final restart of the race on lap 76 and maintain a lead through the next 24 laps with limited pressure from Busch.
“There was no pressure for 24 laps and the last one I just made a mistake,” said Blaney post race.
Being the competitor that he is, Blaney was tremendously hard on himself after race as he kept highlighting on his mistake time and time again. Many fans and drivers offered their support to Blaney after the race.
Although there were problems for Busch and his team, they overcame their issues to continue their amazing streak of excellence.
With a relentless charge that forced Ryan Blaney into a mistake on the last lap, Kyle Busch grabbed the lead with a half-lap left at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and took the checkered flag in Saturday’s Lilly Diabetes 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race.
Blaney missed his mark in turn two as Busch closed in, and with his momentum broken, the driver of the No. 22 Ford couldn’t stave off Busch’s winning pass on the backstretch. The No. 54 pulled away to win by .421 seconds, as Busch continued his white-hot run with his second XFINITY victory of the season, his second at The Brickyard and the record 72nd of his career. Continue reading →
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